COURTHOUSE — Ruling that search warrants were not legally valid a judge has tossed evidence allegedly seized by Lansdale police, presenting a roadblock for prosecutors in a case against a Lansdale man accused of possessing drugs and robbing a borough grocery store.

Montgomery County Judge Garrett D. Page ruled that any evidence seized from accused robber Jurell Small’s home in the 100 block of East Third Street and any statements provided by Smalls to police are not admissible as prosecutorial evidence at trial because warrants to search the home were faulty.

“Here, there was insufficient probable cause based on the totality of the circumstances,” Page wrote in a court order that suppressed the evidence.

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Prosecutors could appeal Page’s ruling to the Pennsylvania Superior Court.

Smalls, 21, remains in the county jail while awaiting trial on charges of robbery, theft by unlawful taking, possessing a firearm with intent to employ it criminally, simple assault and conspiracy in connection with the 7:13 p.m. Sept. 5, 2011, holdup of Famous Grocery store at 21 West Main St. Smalls also faces charges of possession with intent to deliver oxycodone and possession of marijuana, oxycodone and drug paraphernalia in connection with a separate September 2012 incident.

Lansdale police alleged in court papers that when they conducted a search of Small’s residence on Sept. 22, 2012, allegedly while Smalls was the subject of a drug investigation, they discovered a black replica BB gun in his bedroom, a gun that prosecutors contend Smalls used during the grocery store holdup. After his arrest, Smalls confessed to using the gun to demand money from a store clerk, police alleged in the criminal complaint.

But in a pretrial petition, defense lawyer Michael K. Parlow argued that the warrant to search the home was stale and lacked sufficient probable cause.

“The defendant believes and therefore avers that the search warrant was too vague and was used for a fishing expedition,” Parlow wrote in court papers. “Therefore, any and all evidence seized as a result of these illegal searches should be suppressed from the trial.”

Polites argued that there was sufficient probable cause for Lansdale police to conduct the search and that police followed proper procedures when entering Smalls’ residence.

Page, citing state law, said probable cause must be so closely related to the time of the issuance of a warrant as to justify a finding of probable cause at that time. When there is no evidence of continuing criminal activity presented to a judge, it has been held that a delay of as little as 16 days invalidates a warrant, said Page, citing state law.

Page found that a period of 160 days elapsed between the first observation by Lansdale police of alleged drug activity by Smalls on April 14, 2012, and when police requested a search warrant on Sept. 21, 2012, making the warrant stale and invalid.

According to a criminal complaint filed by Lansdale Police Officer Chad Bruckner, confidential sources in March 2012 told police that Smalls had been selling oxycodone pills from his residence, and police conducted surveillance and noted suspicious activity suspected to be drug-related at the home. A controlled purchase of oxycodone was made from Smalls at the home in April, and in August police claimed they observed marijuana plants growing in the back yard, according to court papers.

During the search of the home on Sept. 22, authorities seized oxycodone pills and a BB handgun from Small’s bedroom along with two containers of suspected marijuana, a glass marijuana pipe, several cut straws, and two glass plates with white residue on them, according to the arrest affidavit. When questioned by police, Smalls claimed he was addicted to oxycodone and admitted to selling the pills from his residence “to support his habit,” police alleged.

At the same time, Smalls allegedly confessed to the armed robbery at Famous Grocery, specifically to firing one BB into the ground as he demanded money from a clerk, according to the arrest affidavit. Smalls told police that another man, Mark Steven Williams Jr., also of Lansdale, accompanied him during the robbery, which netted $400, court papers indicate.

Last year, Williams, 23, of the 800 block of West Fifth Street, was sentenced to 11 ½-to-23 months in the county jail, to be followed by four years’ probation, after he pleaded guilty to felony charges of robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery in connection with the holdup.